Red Digital Cinema Camera Company

The company’s headquarters are in Irvine, California, with studios in Hollywood, California. It has offices in London, Shanghai and Singapore, retail stores in Hollywood, New York and Miami as well as various authorized resellers and service centers around the world.[1]

History

Red Digital Cinema was founded by Jim Jannard, who had previously founded Oakley. As a self-described "camera fanatic" owning over 1,000 models, Jannard started the company with the intent to deliver an affordable 4K digital cinema camera.[2][3] Jannard dates this idea to a time when he bought a Sony HDR-FX1 video camera and learned that the files had to be converted with software from Lumiere HD and were not viewable on Mac OS.[2] Lumiere HD's owner Frederic Lumiere collaborated with Jannard on developing an alternative and introduced him to Ted Schilowitz who became Red's first employee.[4]

The early team members engaged in undisclosed research on how to make a digital camera feasible for Hollywood productions. Part of this involved using 4K resolution instead of 2K which was most common at the time. Another technical hurdle was to achieve the focusing quality of DSLR cameras without sacrificing frame rate. Part of Red's solution to this problem was developing a sensor with a physical size comparable to that of analog film.[2] At the 2006 NAB Show, Jannard announced that Red would build a 4K digital cinema camera, called the Red One, and began taking pre-orders.

In March 2007, director Peter Jackson completed a camera test of two prototype Red One cameras, which became the 12-minute World War I film Crossing the Line.[5] On seeing the short film, director Steven Soderbergh told Jannard: "I am all in. I have to shoot with this." Soderbergh took two prototype Red Ones into the jungle to shoot his film, Che.[2] A short documentary, Che and the Digital Revolution was made about the Red camera technology that was used in the film's production.[6] The Red One first shipped in August 2007. One of the first television programs to shoot with it was the medical drama ER.[7]

In 2010, Red acquired the historic Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, and renamed it "Red Studios Hollywood".[8] By 2011, it had over 400 employees.[4] 2011 was also the year in which Panavision, Arri and Aaton announced that they would no longer be producing analog cameras. Red Digital Cinema and the Red One were widely credited as accelerating this transition in the industry.[7] Schilowitz responded to these reviews by saying "It was never our goal to kill film. Instead, we wanted to evolve it."[4]

Cameras

Red Epic-X with hexacopter, 2011

Red One

The Red One was Red Digital Cinema’s first production camera.[9] It captures up to 120 frames per second at 2K resolution and 60 frames per second at 4K resolution.[10] Its "Mysterium" sensor digitized to a proprietary RAW format called Redcode. By 2010, Red began selling upgrades to a 14 megapixel sensor called the "M-X".[11] The Red One has been reviewed as having effectively the same quality as 35mm film.[2][12]

DSMC system

In 2009, Red began releasing new cameras with an updated form factor compared to the Red One. Designed with the goal of facilitating either still images or video, depending on the mounting setup, Red called the concept DSMC for "Digital Stills and Motion Capture".[13] The first camera released for this system was Epic-X, a professional digital stills and motion capture camera with interchangeable lens mounts. After this a new camera line called Scarlet was introduced that provided lower end specifications at a more affordable price. Initially equipped with a 5K imaging sensor, upgrades were later offered to a 6K sensor with higher dynamic range called the "Red Dragon".[14]

DSMC2 system

The DSMC2 family of cameras was introduced in 2015 as the new form factor for all cameras up to 2020.[15] The Weapon 8K VV and Weapon 6K were the first two cameras announced within this line. They were followed by the Red Raven 4.5K and Scarlet-W 5K. Third-party capture formats, namely Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD, were made available for these cameras.[16]

In 2016, an 8K sensor called "Helium" was introduced with the two cameras Red Epic-W and Weapon 8K S35. In early January 2017, this was given the highest sensor score ever, 108, by the DxOMark website.[17]Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the first film to be released that was shot on the Weapon. The film was shot at the camera's full 8K resolution, and featured an equivalent workflow, supplanting director David Fincher's Gone Girl as the film with the highest-resolution post-production workflow.

Other notable products

Lenses

Red offered S35 PL mount prime and zoom lenses for their cameras.

Software

Red began selling its Redcine-X package for post-production workflow in 2009.[18] The process of decompressing the sensor data can be sped up with a Red Rocket accelerator card.[19] There is a downloadable SDK for working directly with the Redcode images, and another for controlling the cameras remotely.[20]

Redray

Announced in 2012, the Redray Player was the first stand-alone device capable of providing 4K content to compatible 2D or 3D displays. Using a 1TB internal drive for storage, the Redray plays 4K or HD media in the Redcode format. The player uses 12-bit 4:2:2 precision.[21] A cinema laser projector in the same family was also announced in 2012 but never released.[22]

Red Hydrogen

In 2017, Red announced its intention to enter the cellphone market. Planned features are a 5.7" holographic display and integration with existing camera products.[23] On May 18, 2018, Red announced the Hydrogen One, with a release date in August 2018. Promised features include a holographic display, spatial sound, modular add-ons, compatibility with the Red camera program, and the launch of a streaming service.[24]

Lawsuits

On August 18, 2008, Red filed a lawsuit against the electronics company LG over its use of the name Scarlet.[25] Red accused LG "... of taking the 'Scarlet' brand name from the camera company" after Red had denied LG's request to use it.[26]

On September 23, 2011, Jannard announced that his personal email account was compromised by former Arri executive Michael Bravin.[27] A lawsuit against Arri and Bravin was filed at the end of 2011, and settled and dismissed in 2013.[28]

On June 27, 2012, Red sued Wooden Camera, a manufacturer of third party accessories, for patent infringement.[29]

In February 2013, Red filed for an injunction against Sony, claiming that several of its new CineAlta products, particularly the 4K-capable F65, infringed on patents the company held. They requested that Sony not only be forced to stop selling the cameras, but that they be destroyed as well.[30] Sony filed a countersuit against Red in April 2013, alleging that Red's entire product line infringed on Sony patents. In July 2013, both parties filed jointly for dismissal, and as of July 20, 2013, the case is closed.[31]

External links

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